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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEHospitality: A Round Robin Collective Production at Arts@RenaissanceJanuary 31 - March 14, 2012Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NYHospitalitydraws on the Latin origins of the word hospitalis: relating to hosting a guest. Over time the word hospital has meant: charitable organization, a lodging for travelers, and a shetler for the poor. Throughout the months of February and March, Round Robin Collective artists and invited guests will occupy the former Greenpoint Hospital (now Arts@Renaissance) where they will explore different aspects of hospitality through collaborative artworks, installations, performances, and events. In a common space, around a constructed and borrowed communal table, Round Robin Collective will present a series of events that invite artists and members of the community to join us as guests and participants. Projects and participatory events will include film and video screenings, weekly drawing workshops, and potluck dinner discussions, as well as parties, and art making events for adults and children. These happenings will shape the space around them: through installations, the display of work produced on-site, and documentation of events, Round Robin Collective and guests will develop an alternative exhibition that re-imagines the former hospital space through shared collective insights. Hospitality is not an exhibition in the traditional sense; it is an invitation to participate in a public practice and an incubator for art production, and the friendships and experiences that sustain and nurture it. By connecting disparate communities and cultivating new relationships, we seek to foster an exchange between not only artists and viewers, but also between art practice and social relationships.Participating Artists Include:Action Club, Bad At Sports, Caitlin Berrigan, Mary Billyou, Amanda Browder, Caroline Burghardt, Kyla Ernst-Alper, Martin Esteves, Shannon Finnegan, Ryan Ford, Barbara Hammer, Kathy High, Kerry Laitala, Lisa Leighton, Deirdre McConnell, Katherin McInnis, Ray Oglesby, Suko Presseau, Christopher Rose, Martha Rosler, Lynne Sachs, Allison Schlegel, David Smith, Amanda Tiller, Breanne Trammell, Union Docs, James Weingrod, Audra Woloweic, and others. Please check our website (roundrobinbrooklyn.blogspot.com) or our Facebook page (Round Robin Collective) for a schedule of events and updates. For inquiries or additional information you may contact us at: roundrobinbrooklyn@gmail.com. About Round Robin Collective:Round Robin Collective is a Brooklyn-based art collective founded in 2008 comprised of artists working in a wide range of media and disciplines, including public art, photography, contemporary crafts, painting, film, and new media. Round Robin conducts regular studio visits and collectively-organized group shows in non-profit and alternative spaces. Round Robin members participating in the exhibition include Mary Billyou, Amanda Browder, Caroline Burghardt, Martin Esteves, Deirdre McConnell, Katherin McInnis, and Christopher Rose. Previous productions organized by the Collective include: Ecstatic, a month-long invitational exhibition with over 30 artists (one of the first shows at the former convent of St. Cecilia, Brooklyn), Round Robin in Residence at AIR Gallery in DUMBO, and LIVE / WORK SPACE at Camel Art Space in Williamsburg. About Arts@RenaissanceArts@Renaissance is a new North Brooklyn arts space. A@R is a place where the community comes together to learn, create and engage with art that addresses the needs of the vibrant and diverse character of the entire neighborhood, particularly low- and moderate-income residents. We are part of St. Nicks Alliance, a neighborhood non-profit that offers programs in housing, workforce development, economic development, health and youth.A@R resides in the 4,500 sq ft garden level of an old hospital building. It features 8 distinct rooms including a 1,300 sq ft central display space and 800 sq ft courtyard.2 Kingsland Avenue, Garden Level, Brooklyn, NY 11211This project is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts' Electronic Media and Film Presentation Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes (www.NYSCA.org - www.eARTS.org).

Hospitality Calendar of EventsTuesdays January 31, February 7, February 13, February 21, and February 287-9pmTuesday Night Open Drawing StudioJoin Round Robin Collective members for a loosely structured studio drawing workshop where participants can come in and draw, discuss their work, hang out and learn about RRC and Arts@Renaissance. Some drawing material will be provided but participants are encouraged to bring their own.Tuesdays February 7, February 21, and February 286-7pmReading Group : "On the Social Contract" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau“Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains” - these are the famous opening words of the treatise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau that helping inspire the writing of our Constitution. Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others, Rousseau argues instead for a pact, or 'social contract', that should exist between all the citizens of a state and that should be the source of sovereign power. During these three meetings, we will read sections and discuss "On the Social Contract," by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Collective reading allows for the ability to enter into difficult texts that might not be as easily accessible on an individual reader's level. An online text is available here: http://www.constitution.org/jjr/socon.htmThursday February 9

7-9pm

Meet Me in the Bathroom

Please join Bad At Sports interview Swedish artist Nanna Nordstrom about her stay in NYC as part of the Apex Art Residency Program. The podcast will be recorded live in the former shower room of the Old Greenpoint Hospital, now part of Arts @ Renaissance. See (+ hear) you there! Alternatively, for all of you out of towners or lazy folk, check it out online at www.badatsports.com, for a live internet shower stream.

Sunday February 127-10pmHeart-Breakers and Lonely-Hearts PartyWe invite you to come break our heart, a piñata heart that is, and share music about love lost, love gained, love revenged, and everything in between. We will make a big beautiful piñata heart filled with sweet candies that we invite you to come bash to your hearts delight! We will also have record players and a hook up for your iPod and we invite you to share your favorite songs about love, life, or space travel, anything goes as long as it’s good! BYOB to drown your sorrows or rejoice with.Tuesday February 14 – March 11

4 Solo Shows in 4 Weeks

On one wall of the interior space, Round Robin Collective members Amanda Browder, Christopher Rose, Caroline Burghardt, and Mary Billyou will each exhibit work, in a solo exhibit that regularly rotates through the course of the exhibits’ calendar. Works on view during events only.

Saturday February 1812-5pmPRISMATIC VORTEX : Community Sewing DayJoin Round Robin Collective member Amanda Browder on Saturday, February 18th for a collective sewing day to make a large scale fabric installation in the Art@Renaissance space. Donate / Trim / Sew / Install - all of these processes will be different acts of sculptural collaboration in the making of a fantastic new piece. Learn how to sew, donate your extra fabric, or chat with your neighbors. This project looks to take hospitality to a sculptural level. Bring yourself, bring your fabric, and contribute to a hospitality-driven collaboration.Donate - Fabric (non-stretchy, cotton, colorful, large sections if possible)Learn - the basics of sewing or....Lend you and your machine to the project.Contribute - yourself!Sunday February 19 event (installation will be up Feb 4 - March 19)12 - 4 pmA Blizzard BuiltBring on the storm, bring on the snow! We are building a blizzard! Caroline Burghardt along with Shannon Finnegan, Lisa Leighton, Deirdre McConnell, Breanne Trammell, and James Weingrod will build a collaborative interactive installation of not-just-paper snowflakes. Flakes will start to form as soon as the exhibition starts but the storm will really get going on our installation workshop day, Sunday, February 19. We invite visitors to bring flakes from home or make some while you are visiting the exhibition. The flakes can be any color (preferably white, blue, grey, pastels but Cheeto orange is great too!), any kind of paper (regular, metallic, clear, tissue, etc.), or any material you fancy (paper, wire, fabric, yarn, etc.). By the end of the exhibition we will have the wildest, most colorful storm this winter!Sunday February 2612-4 pmA-Maize-ing GrainSuko Presseau, farm-educator for McEnroe Organic Farms in upstate NY, along with Caroline Burghardt present a family friendly food and crafts day that will explore Maize (corn) through a variety of hands-on activities. There will be information on the history of the cultivation and use of corn; activities of grinding cornmeal through traditional and contemporary techniques; cooking and eating corn cakes; an interactive cornfield landscape drawing with scarecrow which will be used as a photographic backdrop and as an education tool to discuss farming; and a coloring area with corn-themed pages. Children welcome with parental supervision as well adults who like corn and farms!

Wednesday February 29 7-10 pmAudio Light LeapA presentation of threeexperimental interactive audio-visual works.What does it sound like to listen? Can you hear someone hearing? Listening Loops by Audra Wolowiec is a participatory event that explores hearing through connective listening. With installation by David Smith and collaborative video performance with Caroline Burghardt and Amanda Tiller.Thursday March 17 pm30-30 VisionA program of experimental films and videos exploring medicine's charged relationship to the body. Showing work by both mature and emerging filmmakers, the works delve into fantasies surrounding photography's ontological relationship to rational analysis, the social structures of control, and the left-over institutional spaces of empty corridors and rooms. Including work by: Caitlin Berrigan, Mary Billyou, Barbara Hammer, Kathy High, Katherin McInnis, & Martha Rosler. Filmmakers will be in attendance for conversation after. This project is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts' Electronic Media and Film Presentation Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes (www.NYSCA.org - www.eARTS.org).

Tuesday March 6 CANCELLEDArt Rescue7pmArt Rescue: A One-Day Panel Devoted to Rescuing Your WorkIn conjunction with RRC's Open Drawing Workshop, artists are encouraged to bring in failed or unsuccessful work of your own making, with which you are willing to part. A rotating panel of the other contributing artists will attempt to "resolve" the work for you. Our intention is to engage in a playful experiment that doesn't take itself too seriously, but still allows for surprising + exciting collaborations. Who knows... Together we could create some intriguing + unexpected work! Only artists who contribute work will have a chance to sit on the "Rescue" panel.

Please join our Art Rescue Mission!

Hosted by Julie Torres.Thursday March 8Your Day is My Night7 pmInspired by theater visionaries Augusto Boal and the Wooster Group, this collaboration grows from performance workshops that began in 2010 and will continue through our live media and theater-based exhibition in arts venues and public spaces. Sachs brings together Puerto Rican and Chinese participants who exchange stories around domestic life, immigration and personal-political upheaval. None of these people has ever worked in this cross-cultural way, so it is these process-oriented conversations on film and on stage that will, in the end, enhance their and their audience’s sense of the bed - experienced and imagined from profoundly different viewpoints.

Saturday March 107 pmJourney Into DarknessKerry Laitala will present Journey into Darkness, a rare East Coast in-person screening by acclaimed filmmaker Kerry Laitala, whose work explores cinema's relationship to sex and death, illness and illusion, lies and lyricism. Films include Secure the Shadow, a "meditation on disintegration and mortality" using Victorian era medical photography; Out of the Ether, a dizzying exploration of institutions and infection; Awake but Dreaming, an uncanny, alchemical constellation of image and sound made and processed in a former youth prison. Laitala's films are a unique combination of animation, hand-painting and processing, optical effects, and sculptural elements.This project is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts' Electronic Media and Film Presentation Funds grant program, administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes (www.NYSCA.org - www.eARTS.org).Saturday March 174 - 9 pm Winter BBQ + Potluck CLOSING PARTYWe invite you to shed the winter chill and come BBQ and celebrate the ending of our two-month residency at Arts@Renaissance. Come see what we've been up to - the completed installations and collected materials from all the events. We invite you to share in the glorious tradition of potluck love - bring stuff to grill, salads, potato salad, pickles, brownies, anything you love to eat in the summer around the grill!

Live Music + Games + Food + Art + Beer!Upcoming Events Dates TBA:breathe deeply...move slowly...smileKyla Ernst-AlperThis project is a video installation made from a series of workshops/filming sessions within the space. A few of the sessions will be done with martial artists and dancers who have been training in Chi Kung (breathing exercises and simple movements similar to Tai Chi). At least one session (and possibly more) will be with members of the community who have no prior experience with Chi Kung. The installation will be in three parts - an illustrated description of the project, a curtained station where one at a time people put on headphones and watch an instructional video and follow along, and the final edited video of the breathing and Chi Kung practices projected on a loop.

Courtyard Mural

Artist Ray Ogelsby will create a site-specific graffiti inspired mural on one of the courtyard walls.

Snow Sculpture DayWeather dependent! The first big snowfall of 2012 will be the source material for sculptures. Children welcome with parental supervision.

Bushwick ShamanThe Bushwick Shaman dresses up in full costume bedecked with fur, headress, and face paint etc etc... He has a table and candles and he performs healing rituals on attending guests. They lie on the table and he cures them of bad energy through a series of chants. After the performance he offers them a refreshing coconut drilled on the spot with a straw.